Employee Spotlight: Anthony Izzo

I’m a Chicago-born, Ireland/England-raised jack-of-all-trades, and have lived in Seattle for the past nine years. Having never previously been to the Pacific Northwest, I went out to visit on a whim after leaving England, and have enjoyed every minute here since.

What is your role at Discuss.io?

I work as a Senior Marketing Manager at Discuss.io, which involves strategic planning and execution of acquisition marketing activities and experiments across various channels.

What is your background in?

I studied Mathematics at the University of Manchester before transferring to Seattle University, where I completed my undergraduate in International Business.

Post-college, I spent much of my initial work life in acquisition marketing, eventually segueing to retention marketing, and thereby finding my passion for data science as it pertains to sales and marketing activities. Predictive analytics, statistical data modeling, and just working with big data in general is totally my jam.

What do you like about working for a startup?

Startups have an innate ability to make pivots that larger organizations cannot. And without the unnecessary bureaucracy that tends to be typical of larger companies, startups provide the ability for individuals make contributions across more aspects of a business – not necessarily only in the area for which they are employed. I love working with smaller groups of dedicated, talented colleagues – the best ideas happen in collaborative environments, and startups provide these type of situations in droves.

What gets you excited about the future of Discuss.io?

Discuss.io has a great team of amazing, committed individuals who are passionate about the company and what we do. Combined with a great product that serves a big need for online qualitative research, Discuss.io has all the potential for massive amounts of success. And I love being a part of it.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love to travel, cook needlessly elaborate dishes, play jazz piano, and find hidden spots for happy hour – preferably all at the same time. Getting lost in new cities/countries is a particular passion, as is finding new friends along the way.

When I’m nerding out, I love to code – constructing full-stack environments for pretty graphs and dashboards, making mobile apps, and discussing the merits of various relational databases.

What’s your hidden superpower?

Hmm, which one to choose from? I have an obscenely high success rate talking my way into getting flight upgrades. This may contribute to my next superpower, which is the ability to get over practically any amount of jet lag in a single day. Also, I can recite the entirety of Hugh Grant’s opening monologue from “Love Actually.” But that’s more of a personal feature, not necessarily a superpower.